SALT LAKE CITY, Utah, Aug. 29, 2020 (Gephardt Daily) — A man who was pursued by police in cars and a helicopter, through multiple jurisdictions and at high speeds — because officers believed he was an armed and dangerous fugitive in a stolen car — turned out to be a man who told police he fled because his driver license had expired.
“Salt Lake Gang Unit was following this vehicle because it fled from them earlier,” said Sgt. Robert Brinton, West Valley City Police Department.
“West Valley was just hanging out in our jurisdiction, seeing if the vehicle would come, and eventually the vehicle did come in our city. We weren’t able to spike it, but the airship told us they were running out of fuel and had to go back, so we initiated a pursuit to see if the vehicle would stop. The vehicle obviously didn’t stop.”
Brinton said WVCPD officers were given information that indicated the car’s occupant was a wanted felon who was armed, and the car matched the description of one recently stolen.
“So with that information and the information the airship (helicopter) was out of fuel, had to go back to refuel, we initiated the pursuit,” Brinton said. The pursuit was on West Valley City’s surface streets, “and ended up going on the freeway, 201, 215,” he said. “Speeds reached over 100 mph at that point, but given the time of the morning, there was hardly any traffic on, we were able to keep eyes on that vehicle in the pursuit.”
The car returned to the Salt Lake City area, where its tires were successfully spiked, knocking out three of four tires.
“That really slowed things down, but he just wouldn’t stop,” Brinton said. “He kept going on his rims. There’s three tires that are completely out and shredded, there’s still one tire left on the driver rear side that’s good. Very surprised that he’s still going, and as we were going eastbound on California approaching 215, we got information that the person driving was not the person we originally thought, so it wasn’t that wanted individual with the 10-88. So with that information, we ended up terminating the pursuit.”
Salt Lake City officers finally stopped the vehicle in the area of 1100 West and 400 South.
“It was a single occupant and the vehicle doesn’t appear to be stolen,” Brinton told Gephardt Daily at the scene. “Based on his (the suspect’s) statement, he had an expired driver license.”
Brinton said because of fleeing from multiple agencies, the suspect will now face several felony charges.
